I am looking for a way to create a custom crop overlay. The few that Lightroom offer don't work when trying to do consistant head sizing in the program.
I think when you are cropping in photoshop/bridge/lightroom RAW it would be nice if we had an option to overlay a 8:10 ratio (4:5) on top of the 4x6 crop. This way we can crop to the normal 4:6 but still make sure that the photo can be made into an 8x10 later without cutting out important details (or heads). This can be similiar to the viewfinder inserts you can buy that shows an 8x10/16x20 crop on alot of dslr cameras.
And the overlay could go both ways: if I crop to an 8x10 I want to know what a 4x6 would look like if someone where to print it. It allows you to crop one way or the other and know that a 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 can be printed without manual re-cropping. It is very useful.
It would be a crop overlay that you could access in place of Rule of Thirds, Grid, etc. that would show this? Access it by hitting the [ O ] key like you access the other overlays now?
So you'd have one crop template for the widest common aspect ratio (probably 2:3), and then rules for the other common ratios (5:7 and 4:5 as Rikk suggests?)
Or would you make the outer ratio and included ratios user-selectable somehow? What if people wanted to include common modern printing ratios (e.g. tabloid, A3+, ISO 216, 4:3, 10:13, letter, 5:6, 1:1)?
The former is easy, as Lee Jay says. The latter has a complicated UI (or at least I can't think of a simple one), but if you do the former, you know people will ask for the latter.
I'd do a couple of them - one that includes original, 2:3, 3:4, 5:7 and 4:5. I'd do another for the ones such as you suggest (sqrt(2), etc.). Hit O to cycle through them. If three are required, (I don't know what people use the world over), then fine. But I'd make this simple, with no UI.
How about being able to create your own PSD and use it as an overlay? That would then work for people needing to visualise magazine cover placement, any custom ratio...
______________________ The Lightroom Queen - Author of the Lightroom Missing FAQ & Edit Like a Pro books.
Currently I use the Print module for this - watermarks actually can be transparent PNG files. Some awkward way, but really cool if you print contact sheets with all your photos from the session already inserted into a magazine cover.
Sometimes it happens that I need to position the object on the photo in a very well defined way. To do that currently I use Photoshop Elements with especially prepared transparent layer that visually guids me. This is however very tricky and ergonomically inconsistent.
I found it interesting to have ability of defining the crop guids to meet user specific demands.
Yes, it should be an Adobe-Wide option. I'd sometimes like to check photos with a title-action safe overlay, to make a DVD menu, or titles.
Other times, I have to do ID photos, with the max height, min/max height for eyes, as Arkadiusz showed it, etc.
Definitely, we need to be able to use our own custom overlays. Maybe we don't need the overlay creation tool to be within LR GUI, but there should be a way to add these custom templates.
Also we should be able to change the color and width of these lines within LR.
I am posting this out of a compelling need in my workflow. I shoot location portraiture for organizations and sports teams. This is high volume work which was my impression what LR was designed for. When I get home from a shoot I have hundreds of photos to process.
In recent years, delivery to the customer has gone digital (on CD) rather than only printing prints. So one is forced to use a "universal crop" in all of the photos as you do not know how the customer will print the image.
So this basically means you deliver at the native sensor ratio (4x6 or 8x12) but leave enough room in case they want to print an 8x10.
All of my photos need to be processed this way. But the problem is, I am guessing where the 8x10 falls! If I could turn on an 8x10 Crop Guide Overlay I could crop for the 8x12 but see where an 8x10 would fall and adjust accordingly.
Thank you and I hope a member of the LR team will read this. Please know that his is very important to my business and not just a frivolous request!
Just wanted to try to bring some more attention to this request. Is there a way to know if the request has been seen by Adobe employees? Or has any chance of being implemented?
This reply is to Ben or other Adobe employees that might read this.
I am aware this feature (8x10 Crop Guide Overlay) was not added to LR 4.
Please forgive my forwardness, but what does it take to get a simple pro photo feature added to this software? How do you think it looks from our prespective when video editing is added to a RAW photo processing program over the ability to see an 8x10 crop mark?
I will process thousands of photos in my upcoming dance season that would benefit from this feature. I am so disappointed right now.
Seriously, can we get a fund together and pay for this feature to be added? Yes, it is that important to my photography business.
I am not a lunatic and would appreciate a response.
As a professional photography that literally has to process thousands of photos, having this requested feature (custom crop guide overlay) would be a HUGE benefit towards improving the workflow. This directly translates to photographer cost savings in both time and money.
PLEASE express the urgency/passion behind this request and get this escalated to someone on the development team that can get this feature added!!
The thing that frustrates me is how simple the code must have been to write. Im not a program writer but it seems to me that one person could have done this in one day and saved so many photographers so much time and aggrivation.
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